The Next Ten Years
by Silver Fingerprints
Summary: What happens ten years after the bell ringing, patient saving, elevator stopping, and death-defying seances? Well, this. Character death...well, two actually, but Steg's not important. A scrapbook of memories included.
1. From Beginning to End

_THE PAST TEN YEARS_

Kingdom Hospital had eased over the years, ever since 2003, the year Mary Jensen, the little ghost girl, was saved. The earthquakes had stopped. Mrs. Druse and her favorite doctors fought against Paul and Dr. Gottreich for the last time…and succeeded. Once they entered the New Year, 2004, after the hospital Christmas and New Year's parties, the Kingdom's current happiness suddenly turned into grief, anger, and insanity.

Paul and Dr. Egas Gottreich returned. Dr. Hook found out first, as he was the one in the morgue on January 5th, 2004. He had been chatting with his good friend Dr. Henry Havens, who was about to retire. In the silvery mirror-like drawers of the morgue, Hook saw a reflection, one only to belong to the malevolent fifteen-year-old assistant, Paul Morlock. "Hey Henry," Hook said, eyeing the reflection in front of him nervously, "I'll catch you later. I hear Sally's back in town and I promised Chris that I'd meet up with her to greet Mrs. Druse."

"Ah, no problem, Cap'n," Henry replied and patted the younger doctor on the back.

Later Hook caught up with Mrs. Druse. She hadn't been in the hospital for some time, but now she was back only to learn terrible news. "No…no," Mrs. Druse started, sounding almost defeated, "that can't be. Okay…okay," She sighed. "We'll have another séance, Dr. Hook. And when we do, we will get rid of those two for good. We will."

Hook nodded. He knew the procedure. He didn't want anyone to get killed because of the two evil ghosts that still haunted the halls. At first, when the idea of the first séance came up, he was a little unsure about it, but this time, the second time, he knew that it had to be done.

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Mrs. Eleanor "Sally" Sarah Druse, the hospital's cheery psychic walked the halls of the Kingdom like she had many times before in the past. Ten years ago, she was known as Kingdom Hospital's most infamous hypochondriac, but now, she was just eighty-five years of age and her health declining.

She was glad to be in Lewiston's Kingdom Hospital because she knew that she would be in the good hands of Dr. Hook, Dr. Draper, Dr. Louis Traff and his son, and Dr. Massingale. She was glad Stegman was dead and not invading the Kingdom with his cruelty towards his patients and even patients who weren't even his, for that matter.

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Mrs. Druse remembered 2004 perfectly, especially the day Stegman died. He lost it completely. He took his gun, aimed it at Hook, and cocked the gun. "Steg, calm down. Just cool off. You don't have to do this, you don't," Hook tried to stop him, but Stegman didn't. He pulled the trigger. Hook closed his eyes.

Stegman fell to the tiled floor, blood spilling viciously out of the wound in his chest. Hook opened his eyes and saw Stegman, bleeding. _The gun backfired…_ The dark-haired doctor kneeled down to the floor and checked the pulse of the older doctor that lie in front of him. It was a slow rhythm. He couldn't be saved. "Hook," Stegman whispered loudly, "my car…it's your fault---" Stegman sighed out his last breath. He was gone.

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Mrs. Druse watched from another room as this whole thing went down. She was scared to come out of hiding, so she stayed where she was. She couldn't believe it. Stegman was gone. It was miracle, yet it was spine chilling.

The aging psychic finally found her room. A bed was beckoning to her. Her joints ached, her bones clattered. She sighed as she lies down in the bed. "Mrs. Druse…?" A familiar soft voice called her. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, Chris…" Mrs. Druse said weakly, "I'm not feeling any better. I think my time here is almost up---"

"Please," Chris cut the psychic off, "don't say that."

"You're a doctor. You know that it's the truth."

"Mrs. Druse---" a tear escaped the blonde doctor's eye. Yes, she did know that it was true, but she didn't want it to be.

"No not right now. Don't call me that. Call me Sally."

"Okay," another droplet streamed down her face. "I will."

"Do me one other favor, dear?" Mrs. Druse said and received a nod. "Will you get Hook? The others, too. I just want to see them all again."

"Yes, yes, Sally," Chris sniffled, and then grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket.

She dialed Hook's number and reached him quickly.

"Hook."

"Hey," Chris said. "Round up the others and come down to room 207, okay?"

"Mrs. Druse's room? What's wrong? Chris, is something wrong?" Hook said perplexedly. He didn't like where this was going.

"Just bring them here. You come, too," Chris said with a sigh.

"Of course. I'll be right there."

They hung up. Chris put her phone away rubbed her forehead with her right hand. She looked over at Mrs. Druse who was reading a…scrapbook? Where did that come from?

The door opened and revealed Hook with Elmer, Louis, and Lona following behind him. "Hey," he said softly. It got Mrs. Druse's attention and she lifted her head from the book she had in her hands. "Mrs. Druse…"

"What's going on?" Hook whispered into Chris's ear as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"She wanted all of you here…" Chris started, whispering back, "Because she's…"

"Okay. I got it," He said back softly. Hook knew what his wife was about to say, but he didn't want to hear it. "I called the Rickmans, also. They'll be here as soon as they can."

"Thank you," she said, and then nodded.

The five doctors then all turned to Mrs. Druse. They then went up to her bedside slowly. Hook went to Mrs. Druse's right side and took her hand and grasped it. Chris did the same, but on the left.

The door cracked open and in the doorway was Natalie and Peter. They had aged the past ten years, just like the rest of them. The youngest looking of the bunch was Elmer, who also became a much more mature. He wasn't the crazy twenty-five year old anymore. His pranks ended way back.

"Hey," Natalie and Peter said simultaneously, then saw their old friend, their Mrs. Sally Druse.

"Hi," the others said, looking up at them.

"Thank you for coming," Mrs. Druse said, looking up at them with weary eyes that expressed how grateful she was to be surrounded by the ones she loves. "I just wish that Bobby could've been here. He left yesterday for New York to go to a friend's wedding…"

"We know you do, Sally. We know," Chris said sympathetically.

"I wanted to show you all this scrapbook that I made over the years," Mrs. Druse said and the small crowd of people nodded and smiled.

She opened the navy blue book and the title page said _Life in the Kingdom. _She turned the page and a picture of the Christmas party in 2003 was placed in the middle. It was a group photo. Everyone there. Happy. It brought tears to Mrs. Druse's eyes. The next was of when Hook purposed to Chris at the New Year's party. Hook and Chris looked up at each other and smiled.

"This next one," Mrs. Druse said faintly, looking up at Lona, "is of Blondi when he saved Lona from that lab explosion, remember?"

Lona was on a gurney, hugging Blondi. They both were looking up at the camera and it was as if Blondi, even though he's a dog, was grinning happily too. "Yeah, I do." Lona's eyes were welling with tears, too.

Blondi then snuck in the room and barked solemnly. "Blondi," they all warned, looking at the dog and then laughed.

"This photo is when Elmer completed his residency." The photo showed Elmer and his father, standing outside of the hospital. Lona was there, too, her hand on Elmer's shoulder. Hook stood by Elmer, giving him a fake punch. Chris was there also.

They laughed and cried as they went through the pages and all the photos. They all were having so much fun that they did not notice that outside it began to pour rain.

"And remember the little stunt with the head?" Elmer laughed. "I can't believe I did that!"

"Aw, well. You still have your job, right?" Hook said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever…" Elmer said, mockingly.

"You never cease to make me laugh, Elm," Mrs. Druse tiredly said, and then coughed.

"Whoa, are you alright, Sally?" Chris said, worriedly, holding the psychic's shoulder as she coughed.

Mrs. Druse's coughing fit ended. "No…this is…the end…" Her voice was a mere whisper and the rest of them strained to hear her.

The room fell quiet. They knew that it was going to end here; soon. "I just…I just want-wanted to-to say th-that I'm going to mi-miss you all…" Mrs. Druse stuttered.

"We'll miss you more," Hook said with sorrow, yet trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, Hook…" she laughed. "Wh-what I also want-wanted to s-say w-was that I-I l-love you-you all." Tears streamed down her face.

The room was silent again. "I do-don't want you-you to wor-worry about m-me. I-I'm just pass-passing over."

The doctors and artist and his wife all nodded reluctantly. They sure as hell were going to miss their psychic, their dear psychic.

Mrs. Druse's eyes fell shut and she breathed out but then didn't take in another breath. She was gone…

"Sally!" Chris screamed, tears ran down her face, as well as others' faces.

"Shhhh…" Hook calmed her and pulled her into a hug. Drops fell from his eyes too.

Even though patients come and go, live or die, and the doctors know that death is natural (most of the time), they couldn't let go of this patient. This patient was someone who latched onto their hearts; someone who they had gotten to know so very well. She might've been batty, but everything around the hospital was batty, and that's why only the batty could see clearly. She fit in perfectly. Just perfectly/ She was their batty Mrs. D.

Lona, Louis, Elmer, the Rickmans, Hook and Chris surrounded Mrs. Druse. They wept as Hook called the time of death and paged for someone to take her to the morgue where Bobby-when he got home-would be able to see his mother one last time.

"Goodbye, Mrs. D..."


	2. IMPORTANT LETTER FROM AUTHOR

Hey, it's me, Amelia again. I changed my penname (it used to be kh-4ever, just so you know) so now I'm GeekIsChic. Well, this note is very important…at least to me, it is. This is going to be my VERY LAST KINGDOM HOSPITAL FAN FICTION STORY. Why, you ask? I need something new. Something fresh. And I got just what I wanted. This KH obsession that I've had for a year, two months, twenty-four days is getting boring. My new obsession? Ah, the good ol' _CSI: Crime Scene Investigation_, dude!

I know that I have about five other KH stories in the process, but I'm not going to finish them. I don't feel like I have the need to. I don't even want to, as strange as it sounds. My _Kingdom Hospital 2: Dig Your Way Out _was sadly taken off of the site due to it being in script form. _Antsolutely Delicious _was really fun to write-don't get me wrong-but I won't be updating it.

And since this is my last fan fiction story for Kingdom Hospital, I decided that I should make it one of those whatever-many-years-later type of fiction. I wrote this a few days ago, not stopping one minute until I was done. I just wanted to get it off my chest. Remember what Stephen King said in the special features on the KH DVD? His wife asked him when he was going to stop writing about his accident. His reply was that he won't stop writing about it until he gets it out of his system. I'm going to stop writing about KH because it's out. It's off my chest.

Glad I could write what I did.

Sincerely,

Amelia Stanley

P.S. I'm still sure as hell going to Maine someday!


End file.
